by Jerry Senn
“Gordon MacDonald points out in Restoring Your Spiritual Passion that the apostle Paul, strong as he was, had a great need and a great capacity for friendship.
The apostle Paul was clearly a man committed to raising up a band of special friends. He knew who they were, and he regularly recognized them for their contribution to his spiritual passion. His friends were a resource upon which he obviously depended and without which he would not have survived.
His address book of special friends would have included Aquila and Priscilla, with whom he occasionally worked and lived (Acts 18:3), Onesiphorus (‘for he oft refreshed me’ 2 Tim. 1:16 – KJV), Philemon (‘I have derived much joy and comfort from your love’ Philem. 1:7 – RSV), Luke, and a host of others. Paul’s friends came in all ages and backgrounds, and he seems to have taken great care to cultivate them.”
(Robert J Morgan)
“A friend loves at all times,
And a brother is born for adversity.”
“There is friend who sticks closer
Than a brother”
(Prov 17:17; 18:24b)